Fine purveyor of ye olde poppycock…

A few words regarding the Aurora, CO shooting

Friday morning I woke up excited for the premiere of The Dark Knight Rises. I had purchased two advance tickets for me and my 9 year old daughter for the 7:30 show that night… I decided against the midnight premiere because my daughter would have a hard time staying up that late… and frankly, now that I’m 40 and would have to face the prospect of going to work after only three hours sleep… I just can’t do it anymore.

Like every morning, I got up, grabbed my phone, and checked the news of the day… I was horrified to read about the mass shooting in Aurora, CO. A dick head (I won’t write his name… if he wants attention, I will not give it to him) in full ballistic gear barged into the back door of a theater showing the midnight opening of The Dark Knight Rises and began his own little campaign of terror. Armed with an assault rifle, two handguns, a 12 gauge shotgun, and either smoke or tear gas canisters, this monster opened fire on an unsuspecting theater crowd shooting 70 people… killing 12, including a 6 year old girl, and injuring 58. To top it off, he allegedly claimed that he was the Joker…

I was sickened by this news. Not that I was afraid for myself, not that I am completely surprised another American has gone ape shit crazy with his guns, but that someone would enter into what I would consider one of my holy temples… my church… my place of worship… the movie theater, and instill this terror and gore into a group of people joining together in one of our society’s last vestige of communal gathering… then to lay claim to one of this franchises most well known villain is an abomination and distortion of what these stories are meant to be… the need for a hero… not a villain.

Every time one of these mass shootings occur politics enters into the picture. Immediately, gun control advocates and the gun lobby itself jumped onto this situation to stake out their own positions. For the gun lobby, they claimed that if only someone in the theater had a weapon on them they could have foiled this mass murder. I will call complete bullshit on that argument. When the Arizona shooting that happened recently, killing 7 and injuring Rep. Gabby Giffords, there were people in the crowd with guns. Turns out, if they had used them, which they almost did… they would have shot the wrong people. In confusing situations, more people with guns can lead to much worse situations and the wrong people being shot.

I have never made a secret of how I abhor guns. I understand that they have a place in our world and in our society… I don’t have an issue with hunting rifles and shotguns or handguns for home defense… but I have a major issue with assault rifles and automatic weapons in the hands of anyone but our military and special police forces. I see no excuse to have these weapons in the general population. They are made for one purpose, to kill humans… why are these allowed? The cock-knocker shooter acquired all four weapons legally… all ammunition legally… all ballistic armor legally. Why do we make it so easy for people to be able to kill one another on a massive scale. Sure, if someone wants to kill someone they can do so without a gun… but 70 people? In a few minutes time? Try doing that with an arrow or a knife.

I will not hold my breath in the hopes that this event will begin a debate in our government. The gun lobby is far too powerful and our representatives far too cowardly and weak to ever stand up to the bullies that demand their guns. Yes, I view those who would defend their “right” to own an assault rifle to be bullies. They want their way and if they don’t get it they will cry “freedom”… you will hear arguments about escalation and “if the bad guys are the only ones with guns who will protect us”… you will hear bullshit about communists and socialists and the second amendment. I find all these arguments hollow. How many people need to needlessly die because some people have some strange fetish with their weaponry? I’ve shot guns in the past… I know the feeling, it’s quite a rush… but my dick never grew… it didn’t add girth or length to my cock… I grew no more chest hair after than I had before… it did nothing to me beyond giving me the realization that I had something that could kill someone in my hands… perhaps it’s the power?

I’m often fascinated by murder with firearm rates worldwide… certainly comparing countries where it is difficult getting guns versus those where it is easy. The most recent data shows that South Africa has the highest rate… 31,918 deaths… that’s horrid (Columbia and Thailand are #2 and 3). The U.S. ranks fourth with 9,369. What about Japan? 47. England? 14. Germany is ranked #11 with 269 murders. What about our kindly neighbors to the north, Canada? #14 with 144 murders. Mexico must be through the roof right? We are terrified of all those drug wars and beheadings… how many murders by firearms? 2,606… they are ranked #6 in the world. Between #6 and #4, a difference of 6,763 murders… almost three times Mexico’s total. Who are the uncivilized people again?

I realize people feel very strongly about this subject… on both sides of the argument… but the gun lobby cannot continue telling us there isn’t a problem with guns in this country and have us take them seriously. They are using the tactics of fear and intimidation…

Another aspect of all of this that drives me batty began that morning as well… immediately on Facebook and Twitter I began seeing people deciding not to go see the movie this weekend because they were afraid. First of all… it didn’t happen to you. Secondly, I rejected the idea of fear after 9/11 and I reject the idea of fear now. A terrorists job is to instill fear (sounds like the gun lobby to me)… if he and/or she fails to instill fear, they have failed. Do you remember all that rhetoric about not letting the terrorists win after 9/11 and the government encouraging people to get out and shop and eat, drink, and be merry? They were right. Don’t allow them to take control… don’t allow them to dictate your life… be aware of dangers, but never let them stop you. If you were one of the people afraid this weekend, look at what you have done… you have allowed one sick fuck to tell you what you can and can’t do. I will not succumb… I will not hide… and neither should you.

As it stands, the world is already full of too many villains… we need more heroes. Perhaps this mentally unsound individual and his actions of terror will remind more of us of that fact. There are too many bad guys, we have to be the good guys.

I advocate much stricter gun control laws,Cornelius J. Blahg

For the sources of the firearm murders:

DEFINITION: Total recorded intentional homicides committed with a firearm. Crime statistics are often better indicators of prevalence of law enforcement and willingness to report crime, than actual prevalence.

SOURCE: The Eighth United Nations Survey on Crime Trends and the Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (2002) (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Centre for International Crime Prevention)